courtesy: goandshoot.com
From Casey Neistat’s commercial for Nike.  

I like when minds are different. I like when one person looks at a piece of abstract art and sees their mother in law on the Eiffel tower, and another person sees bacon falling from the sun.

One mind that looks at the world differently is filmmaker Casey Neistat. He was hired by Nike to make a commercial about their new wristband that counts steps. More specifically, he had to show the world in one commercial what it means to “make it count”.

Neistat is known for his risky approaches. In this particular film he starts out by telling viewers “Nike asked me to make a movie asking what it meant to make it count. Instead of making their commercial I spent the entire budget traveling around the world with my friend Max. We’d keep going until the money ran out. It took ten days.”

A quote that shows up on the screen is: “life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all,” said by Hellen Keller. The camera lenses capture Neistat’s journey through footsteps. He goes from his New York apartment to the airport, to the Eiffel tower, the pyramids in Egypt, the Buckingham Palace and Big Ben in London, the rainforests in Zambia, the Vatican in Rome, Bangkok, and back to his New York apartment. Whether if he’s running, walking, jumping, or flipping, he is always in motion.

No matter how many times I watch this film, I always feel inspired at the end. There are several quotes throughout the video. The ones that I take with me to Élan are “Do one thing everyday that scares you” said by Elanor Roosevelet  and “Action expresses priorities” said by Ghandi. I entered Élan this year as Art Editor. Like anything else, it can be scary taking a new role, but I’m here because I’m passionate about art.

In Élan I get to surround myself with art and writing, and it’s as if I’ve traveled all over the world, through different concepts and different minds all by staying foot in one place, in this one classroom, where Élan’s literary pages come to life. To me, that’s what matters, that’s what counts.

-Kathleen Roland, Art Editor 

Watch the commercial here! Follow the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxfZkMm3wcg&list=UUtinbF-Q-fVthA0qrFQTgXQ